Julius Caesar

Description

From the Royal Shakespeare Company -- a fresh new edition of Shakespeare's drama of the conflict between one man's ambition and the good of the state. THIS EDITION INCLUDES: / An illuminating introduction to Julius Caesar by award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate / The play - with clear and authoritative explanatory notes on each page / A helpful scene-by-scene analysis and key facts about the play / An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre / A rich exploration of approaches to staging the play featuring photographs of key productions The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This unique edition presents a historical overview of Julius Caesar in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading directors - Lucy Bailey, David Farr and Edward Hall - so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible, a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.
Ideal for students, theatre-goers, actors and general readers, the RSC Shakespeare plays offer an accessible and contemporary approach to reading and rediscovering Shakespeare's works for the twenty-first century.

Reviews

'A triumphant addition to our times.' - Fiona Shaw, The Times

Author description

JONATHAN BATE Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as "the best modern book on Shakespeare." In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'. ERIC RASMUSSEN Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford World's Classics series. He is the General Textual Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions project - one of the most visited Shakespeare websites in the world. For over nine years he has written the annual review of editions and textual studies for the Shakespeare Survey.

Table of contents

Introduction About the Text Key Facts Julius Caesar Textual Notes Scene-by-Scene Analysis Julius Caesar in Performance: the RSC and Beyond Four Centuries of Julius Caesar: An Overview At the RSC The Director's Cut: interviews with David Farr, Edward Hall and Lucy Bailey Shakespeare's Career in the Theatre Shakespeare's Works: a Chronology The History Behind the Tragedies: A Chronology Further Reading and Viewing References Acknowledgements and Picture Credits